Tesla tackles California energy woes with massive energy-storage deal

“Working in close collaboration with Southern California Edison, the Tesla Powerpack system will be a landmark project that truly heralds the new age of storage on the electric grid”.

Once built, the energy storage facility will reportedly be the largest operating lithium ion battery storage project in the world.

With all the buzz about Tesla’s vehicle offerings, it is easy to forget that the brand has a blossoming energy storage business.

The system will be operational by year’s end, Bloomberg reports.

Southern California Edison has selected Tesla Motors Inc.to build a 20-megawatt battery storage facility in Mira Loma for an undisclosed amount.

The power storage system will be manufactured, installed, and brought online within three months, according to Tesla.

Here’s a chart showing the acceleration of energy-storage deployment as batteries gain popularity.

A 2-megawatt Tesla battery system costs about $US2.9 million ($3.86 million), according to Tesla’s website.

Tesla’s contract comes after an electricity shortage in the area following the rupture of the Aliso Canyon natural gas reservoir last October.

“The storage is being procured in a record time frame”, Yayoi Sekine, a battery analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, told Bloomberg.

Southern California Edison has been adding both energy storage and energy efficiency measures following the gas leak past year at Aliso Canyon, near Los Angeles that forced neighborhoods to evacuate.

In August, California regulators approved two contracts for AES to build 37 megawatts of grid-scale energy storage systems to address anticipated power shortfalls stemming from the Aliso Canyon leak.

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